Sydney Remembered in Ceremonial Whites and a Baggy Green
11 November 2011 By SMN Will Manning & SBLT Sarah West
The Royal Australian Navy has today joined the Western Australian Cricket Association (WACA) in paying homage to a sailor and promising cricketer who perished in HMAS Sydney (II) when the Modified Leander Class Light Cruiser was lost at sea in 1941.
The Remembrance Day service, held at the WACA Museum on the 70th anniversary of Sydney II’s final departure from Fremantle Harbour, paid tribute to the warship and her men, while also reflecting on a number of aspiring cricketers whose careers were tragically cut short by war.
When Sydney II came to rest on the ocean floor, 112 nautical miles off the coast off Steep Point, Western Australia, so did the ambitions of hundreds of young Australian men including Stores Assistant Kenneth Norman Hilton Butler.
Stores Assistant Butler was one of the 645 men lost after Sydney II fatally encountered the armed German Raider HSK Kormoran on the 19th of November 1941.
Butler was a budding cricket player who had just begun a career in teaching when he was called up for war service as a Reservist in the RAN. Records of his short-lived cricket career are considered a testimony to his incredible talent.
Butler represented Perth’s Wesley College First XI three times between 1936 and 1939. In his final year, he posted two substantial scores of 115 not out and 107, making him a highly revered cricketer by his peers.
He was also involved in club cricket. After initially representing Claremont-Cottesloe’s ‘B’ grade team, Butler was soon promoted to first grade and debuted for Mt Lawley Cricket Club shortly before his 17th birthday. He would go on to play 38 games for Mt Lawley and finish with a career total of 753 runs.
Despite all his achievements on the pitch, it was one particular performance for Wesley College that truly bolstered Butler’s prominence within the cricketing community.
In 1936, Butler and the other members of the Wesley First XI played Incogniti, a prestigious English team that boasted three players who were in Australia to contest the Ashes that summer. After opening the bowling, Butler finished the day with 4 for 29, an incredible achievement for a school boy.
Kenneth Butler was just 21 when he and his shipmates perished. His loss was felt not only by his family and friends, and the Royal Australian Navy, but by the Australian cricket community who never got to see him reach his potential.
At the memorial service, HMAS Stirling Executive Officer CMDR Rudi Overmeyer used Butler’s example to illustrate the importance of sport to the development of teamwork, mateship and esprit de corps in the RAN.
“On the field we learn each others strengths and weaknesses, and empower each other to reach our full potential.”
“At sea, we do the same, working together towards a common goal, wearing the colours of our Navy which itself instils a sense of pride in our team,” said CMDR Overmeyer.
The end of the service was marked with the unveiling of painting by Darrell White entitled ‘Farewell Sydney’, showing HMAS Sydney II departing Fremantle on the 11th of November, 1941.
The portrait will ensure that the sacrifice of Butler and his 644 shipmates will always be remembered, immortalised on canvas.
blog comments powered by Disqus
